Accessing the lab
Ask for access on the mailing list: ldg-mlab-admins@linaro.org.
Mention what kind of hardware you need and for how long. Also explain if there is any special set up you need for your testing. In the lab at the moment all the machines have one NIC connected and they are all in the same network. This means any tests that require to flood the network need to be coordinated.
Hardware Sharing
You will get two sets of credentials for the lab:
- VPN certificates/credentials
- Mr Provisioners user/password
Install and set up openvpn connection to mlab:
$ sudo apt-get install -y openvpn
$ sudo openvpn --config <the .ovpn file you received>
Input your username and password and wait for the connection sequence to finish. Once the connection has been established successfully, you should see something like 'Initialization Sequence Completed'.
Once connected to the VPN you will have access to the app that controls the hardware in the lab, Mr Provisioner. This app is available in our infrastructure server, Walter:
You will be able to manage your test images (kernel + initrd) or use the ones provided by other users (see top menu images/preseeds). To be able to use them you need to go into whichever machine you have been assigned and edit the following:
Kernel
Kernel opts
Initrd
Preseed
Netboot value
You can also pxe boot, reboot, switch on and off via ipmi and connect to the console and see the machine boot and download the log if necessary (make sure to disable any ad blocker, else you may not be able to download the log).
You will only be able to use a machine that has been assigned to you (except for admins, who have access to all but will not use this except for troubleshooting).
D03 kernel opts
The recommended kernel opts for D03 (pre-ERP 17.12) is:
console=ttyS0,115200 --- console=ttyS0,115200
This is so that the console is not lost after installing, and then so that the configuration is there after rebooting and booting into the installed system. This was a known issue with D03s that was fixed on ERP 17.12). D05 do not need such config.
Setting up hostname via kernel args
Hostname can be set either when booting the machine on the kernel cmd line:
netcfg/hostname=r1-m1-c11n1
or when provisioning by adding it to the preseed using {{ hostname }} as if the preseed file were a jinja template.
Extra fancy kernel cmd lines
netcfg/hostname=r1-m1-c21n1 net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0